This blog is for the students enrolled in CP102 for Fall 2005 at Wilfrid Laurier University. Material here will not directly count towards your marks.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Input and Output at a new level

In today's class I brought in examples of unusual input and output devices. Admittedly, practically everyone has seen a keyboard, monitor and mouse before so I needed something that would get students' attention.

As an alternate input device, I brought in a Nintendo PowerGlove. I have used it to play Tetris, but it has limitations that would keep me from using it for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time. In the 90's a bunch of computer/tech/hobbyists were trying to get them to connect to their computer to make "home-brew" virtual reality systems. Some of them worked too!

An interesting output device that could go along with the PowerGlove is a head mounted display (HMD). The one I brought in was an old VFX1 Headgear by a company called Forte, but now that same company is still producing top of the line HMDs. You can visit their website here.